Equal on points! That's how close the German Touring Yacht Club came to victory against the Überlingen Sailing and Motorboat Club on the fourth of six league weekends off Travemünde. The decision on the stage victory in the upper house of German sailing was only made in the last race on Sunday. A fifth place was enough for the Bavarians, while the Überlingen crew from Baden-Württemberg crossed the finish line in third place. With a total of 48 points each, it was the two-time German champions from the DTYC who were able to celebrate at the end of the duel because they won four times in their 16 races, while the SMCÜ team only won three times.
DTYC helmsman Julian Stückl, who made it difficult for the competition with league-experienced Sebastian Bühler, newcomer Dominik Müller and Marco Tarabochia, was visibly relieved after the thriller final: "We risked our lead unnecessarily with the bad starts on the last day of the competition." However, the narrowly beaten team from Überlingen were also delighted with their second place on the podium, having exceeded their own expectations. SMCÜ helmsman Tino Mittelmeier, sailing with Jan Fritze, Alexander Gaiser and Frederik Schaal, said: "In our favourite conditions with few waves and ten knots of wind, we were able to achieve consistently good results and thus an absolute top placing."
First and second division teams met off Travemünde at the weekend for exciting races. They had no idea how exciting it was going to be. Here is the transmission of the 3rd race day
And it got even better for the men from Lake Constance, because with their success on the Baltic Sea they also took the lead in the standings ahead of the Bavarians and the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, who had to be satisfied with ninth place before Travemünde and dropped from first to third place in the table. Third and fourth place were secured by two Berlin clubs, the Potsdamer Yacht Club (Freddy Eichhorst, Martin Metzing, Sebastian Freytag, Leander Kamm) and the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club (Jasper Wagner, Annika Bochmann, Max Salzwedel, Felix Bergemann). Bringing up the rear ahead of Travemünde, as well as in the first division table, is the Schweriner Yacht-Club.
The matches in the 2nd Bundesliga were also highly exciting, with Seglervereinigung Itzehoe with helmsman Julian Ramm, Oliver Lewin, Ole Harder and Moritz Burmeister ultimately prevailing against Schlei-Segel-Club with Andreas Willim, Helge Homann, Suzanne Willim and Henning Sohn and third-placed Mühlenberger Segel-Club with its young dream team of Magnus Simon, Till Krüger, Finn Olsen and Anton Schroeder. This means that the SVI crew will start the second league final, which will be held off Glücksburg from 18 to 20 August, as league leaders. With a total of just ten points on their league account and a six-point lead over second-placed Flensburger-Segel-Club and Akademischer Segel-Verein Warnemünde, the Itzehoer can already enjoy a little anticipation of promotion to the 1st Bundesliga.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
